By Jane Perlez
May 25, 1999
Washington -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with the leaders of Iraqi opposition groups Monday, the first encounter the secretary has had with such leaders and an indication of the Clinton administration's efforts to build a more cohesive opposition against Saddam Hussein.
The meeting between Albright and nearly a dozen Iraqi opposition leaders came as the State Department announced moves to supply the opposition with non-lethal assistance such as offices and communication equipment. Under the Iraqi Liberation Act passed by Congress last year, $97 million was made available for lethal and non-lethal aid to seven opposition groups intent on overthrowing the Iraqi president. In January, the administration appointed Frank Ricciardone, a Foreign Service officer, as special representative for transition in Iraq and the official responsible for overseeing administration policy toward the Iraqi opposition groups.
The administration decided to move ahead with supporting the opposition groups, including Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, despite skepticism at the Pentagon. In 1996, the operations in northern Iraq of the Iraqi National Congress were decimated by the Iraqi army and Chalabi was out of favor with the administration after that debacle. But Chalabi lobbied Congress to pass the $97 million plan and hoped to get his group designated as the main recipient.
The top American commander in the Middle East, Gen. Anthony C. Zinni of the Marine Corps, warned last year that none of the existing groups was strong enough to either unify the opposition or topple Saddam Hussein.
After Albright met with the opposition leaders, the assistant secretary for Near East affairs, Martin Indyk, said the support for the groups was one facet of the overall policy to change the regime in Iraq. "This is a political effort from the outside to delegitimize Saddam," Indyk said.
The broader policy embraced the continuing bombing by the United States of Iraq, economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation, Indyk said.
The first funds from the $97 million would be spent on training the opposition groups in civil administration that would help them "move into" Iraq should Saddam be toppled, a senior administration official said. "We're not talking about lethal assistance at this time," the State Department spokesman, James P. Rubin, said Monday. There were funds for a broadcasting system that would enable the opposition groups to get their anti-Saddam message into Iraq. As well, the opposition would most likely open offices in London, New York and in the Middle East.
In announcing the activities Monday, Rubin, said that the administration was embarking on a new policy. "This kind of broad-based political regime change, overt policy, is a new policy," he said. He described the membership of the opposition that the administration is backing as being a "variety" that stretched beyond the interests of Chalabi. Among those groups at the State Department Monday were the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Latif Rashid, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Hoshyar Zebari. State Department officials said they were pleased a centrist Sunni leader in exile, Riyad al Yawir, was present Monday.
Part of the meeting with Albright Monday was intended to show to the administration that the frequently squabbling opposition factions had patched up their differences and were reuniting in the goal of overthrowing Saddam, a senior State Department official said.
